Portland Center Deandre Ayton made a promise to Portland Trail Blazers fans as the team started a season of uncertainty.
“I bring dominance,” he said. “My name is DominAyton.”
Ayton joined Portland in the three-team trade that sent Damian Lillard to the Milwaukee Bucks. He was smiling ear-to-ear when he was introduced this week, mugging for cameras and looking forward to a fresh start after playing for five years with the Phoenix Suns.
“New beginning,” Ayton said. “I get to show the world, show you guys who I am as a player on and off the court. Helping the young guys on this team win. Teaching them how to win.”
Ayton will be filling the shoes of Jusuf Nurkic who was sent to Suns as part of the blockbuster trade last season. The Blazers signed Robert Williams III in a trade with the Boston Celtics, and due to this, the Trail Blazers now have a team of 25-year-old big men who have been on teams that played in the NBA Finals.
“We are going to put a lot of pressure on the paint on the offensive end, and defensively we will protect the rim,” coach Chauncey Billups said. “It’s going to be a lot of fun.”
Ayton, the No.1 pick in the 2018 draft, averaged 18 points and 10.0 rebounds in 67 matches with Phoenix last season but it seems his time with the Suns was ending. He signed a four-year deal with the Indiana Pacers last year before the Suns matched it, and rumours spread this summer that he would be traded.
Billups emphasized that Portland would not ask Deandre Ayton to run the show, like Joel Embiid with the Philadelphia 76ers or Nikola Jokic with the Denver Nuggets. The Trail Blazers in the post-Lillard era would be more of a team effort.
“We’re not bringing in Deandre for him to be Embiid, where we’re gonna throw him the ball 30 times a game and say, ‘Alright, go be MVP.′ That’s not gonna be his role. However, he probably will have a more expanded role than he had at Phoenix,” Billups said. “But again, like we’ve got a lot of young guys that are gonna be trying to figure it out. Y’all know how I feel about connectivity and being connected and those things take a lot of time.”
For his career, Ayton averaged 16.7 points, 10.4 rebounds and one block per game. He was a key ingredient in Phoenix’s run to the NBA Finals in 2021. The next season, the Suns finished with the best record in the League.
Last season, Phoenix was eliminated by Denver in the second round of the playoffs. Ayton did not play in Game 6 of the series because of an injury to his rib.
Blazers general manager Joe Cronin maintains that Ayton has not reached his potential yet.
“Especially with big men, it takes a lot to get to where their peak is. I think Deandre is at least a couple of years from that,” Cronin said.
For his part, Deandre Ayton said he was going to change the narrative.
“I’m in an organization that wants me and wants me to succeed. So there’s a lot more passion when you feel that mentally, you’ve seen it physically as well,” he said. “So there will be a lot more grit and a lot more domination this year.”
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